Author: marquitabp

Thank God For What He Did Not Allow

 

He said, "If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the LORD who heals you." Exodus 15:26 NLT

 

This was another one of those topics that stuck with me.  I had to go back through my memory bank Sunday morning in church because I think this is something I myself need to be reminded of.  A lot of times when a person is feeling down, the typical form of "encouragement" is to tell that person to count their blessings.  I think there is nothing wrong with counting your blessings, but when you are depressed or sad, who really wants to count their blessings?  If you are in a foul mood, you don't have the heart half of the time to thank God for what He has done for you primarily because of your mood.

As I sat reading a devotion I think, this stuck in my mind.  Where would I be had God allowed some things His angels and He himself interceded on my behalf to prevent?  The first and only thing I could think of was–DEAD.  I would be dead had the Holy Spirit not urged me to get off the freeway in San Francisco.  I would be dead had my plane not stopped sliding on the dry runway.  I would be dead had I not gone to the health center my junior year.  I would be dead if I had not gotten a kidney before I did.  I would be dead if I did not see the 18-wheeler getting over in front of me when I first got my license.

God is a great God…the only God and through His Son's sacrifice, we are now His sons and daughters.  If you are a parent, wouldn't you go to great lengths to preserve the life of your child?  What would have happened had you not kept their tiny hands from the outlet, the iron, those pain killers??

The scripture above is God telling the children of Israel what He would protect them from if they were obedient to Him.  Deuteronomy 28 denotes the blessings and curses that they would fall subject to if they were obedient to God.  Because they could not be obedient and were not obedient, God sent His precious Son Jesus to redeem and rescue from that curse.  Moreover, God protects us and prevents things far worse from happening to us.  So while you complain about that pain in your back, remember that God kept you from paralysis, or while you look at that surgery scar, remember how God blessed you with the doctor that caught whatever it was before it multiplied.

But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree."  Galatians 3:13 NLT

Have You Come Full Circle?

 

"He restored the chief cupbearer to his position. So the cupbearer put the cup in Pharaoh's hand."  Genesis 40:21 NASB

 

Today is March 11, 2011.  I think back last year this time…I would have been working a few more hours to get ready to go home to help my mom and spend time with my dad who was declining from liver cancer.  And I'm sorry, I have to cry because things have truly come full circle for me.  11 days later…11 days from today will be a year since God called my daddy home to be with Him, to give him the rest he needed.  I think of the time after that, where I endured pain no person should have to experience, but all in the glory of God to draw me to Him for everything.

 

The scripture above is what happened after Joseph interpreted the chief baker and chief cupbearer's dreams.  The chief baker was hung and the chief cupbearer was restored to his position.  Sometimes after things happen, we are sometimes worse than we were before they happened.  I know I was much worse off after my daddy died.  But if it wasn't for my continual cries to God in prayer, and I know it had to be His own love for me, that God restored me to better than I could have ever imagined.  Like the cupbearer, God restored me to position as His beloved daughter, flaws and all.  He took all that pain and hurt I was holding away and replaced it with His love.  Now, no one can replace my daddy, and nor have I tried to occupy that role with any person, but God has filled that void with such wonderful memories that I cannot ask for anything but that right now. 

 

Maybe today you are going through something difficult.  But know and trust in the very essence of who God is.  Rest in the fact that God is a great and compassionate father, that loves us unconditionally.  Maybe like me you experienced some hurtful loss or something that seems unfair, like unexpected illness.  In Psalm 34:19, the Psalmist says "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all."  So everything that you are experiencing, give it to God and see if He doesn't deliver you.  See if He doesn't restore that loss, see if He doesn't heal you…trust God because He is not a man that He should lie to us.  Have faith enough to believe that God will do what He says.  If you are only halfway around that circle, keep pushing because God will restore you if you believe it.  Better days do await us all.

 

"Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up."  Psalm 71:20 NIV

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"No weapon formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of God and their righteousness is of me," says the Lord.  Isaiah 54:17
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